1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator with a client pad detachably attached thereto, and more particularly to a system and method for switching a communication mode of a detachable pad refrigerator (which is also referred to as a pad-detachable refrigerator), wherein the attachment/detachment of a client pad to/from the refrigerator is sensed and the communication mode of the refrigerator is switched to a wired/wireless communication mode according to the sensed result so that signals can be transmitted and received in the switched communication mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
The configuration of a conventional refrigerator will hereinafter be described with reference to FIG. 1.
The conventional refrigerator R is a home appliance that has an inner compartment for storage of food and in which a refrigerant circulates while being maintained at a low temperature to insulate the inner compartment from heat and preserve the food from decay so as to keep it in a fresh state for a long time.
The conventional refrigerator R has hardware connectable to an external Internet network, such as an Internet modem, in addition to the above-mentioned basic refrigeration function. As a result, the refrigerator can access a desired Web page to transmit and receive data thereto/therefrom and retrieve and acquire desired information therefrom.
In general terms, the refrigerator R is operated 24 hours every day to keep food at a low temperature. In this connection, the refrigerator R is equipped with a chipset for processing of data and a memory for storage of user data so that it can function as a home server to manage/control networking of one or more home appliances connected to an internal network constructed in a building and recognized as clients.
The home server function signifies monitoring the states of one or more home appliances connected to the internal network constructed in the building, or controlling signal flows of the home appliances. By performing this home server function, the refrigerator R can manage/control the state of the internal network and relay between the external network and the internal network of the building through the Internet modem, thereby making it possible to remotely control the home appliances in the building.
To this end, the refrigerator R includes a display unit 1 and an input unit (not shown) mounted on its outer surface. The input unit functions to input a user's command and may be a button panel or touch pad. Therefore, the user can monitor multimedia data transmitted and received over the Internet, or state information of the home appliances connected to the internal network.
Since the display unit 1 mounted on the outer surface of the conventional refrigerator R is typically limited in thickness, it may preferably be a thin monitor such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor. The user can input a control command or monitor an output situation through the display unit 1 under the condition of standing in front of the display unit 1.
For this reason, the conventional refrigerator is disadvantageous in that the user is spatially restricted in using the display unit 1 and feels fatigue when using it for a lengthy period of time, resulting in inconvenience of use.